SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (news agencies) — When Kenyan police arrived in Haiti as part of a U.N.-backed mission earlier this year to tackle gang violence, hopes were high.
Coordinated gang attacks on prisons, police stations and the main international airport had crippled the country’s capital and forced the prime minister to resign, plunging Haiti into an unprecedented crisis.
But the crisis has only deepened since the international policing contingent arrived. The main international airport closed for the second time this year after gangs opened fire on commercial flights in mid-November, striking a flight attendant. Gunmen also are attacking once-peaceful communities to try and seize control of the entire capital, taking advantage of political infighting that led to the abrupt dismissal of the prime minister earlier this month.
Now, a new prime minister is tasked with turning around a nation that sees no escape from its troubles as Haitians wonder: How did the country reach this point?
Bloody coups, brutal dictatorships and gangs created by Haiti’s political and economic elite have long defined the country’s history, but experts say the current crisis is the worst they’ve seen.
“I’m very bleak about the future,” said Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia. “The whole situation is really collapsing.”
The government is anemic, the U.N.-backed mission that supports Haiti’s understaffed police department lacks funding and personnel, and gangs now control 85% of the capital. Then, on Wednesday, another blow.
Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending critical care in Port-au-Prince as it accused police of targeting its staff and patients, including threats of rape and death. It’s the first time the aid group has stopped working with new patients since it began operating in Haiti more than 30 years ago.
“Every day that we cannot resume activities is a tragedy, as we are one of the few providers of a wide range of medical services that have remained open during this extremely difficult year,” said Christophe Garnier, mission director in Haiti.
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